


The Jersey Devil

by leiascully



Series: The FBI's Most Unwanted [5]
Category: The X-Files
Genre: Episode Related, Gen
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2015-06-04
Updated: 2015-06-04
Packaged: 2018-04-02 18:55:20
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 369
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/4070863
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/leiascully/pseuds/leiascully
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>He loved that there were mysteries so close to home.</p>
            </blockquote>





	The Jersey Devil

**Author's Note:**

> Timeline: 1.04 "The Jersey Devil"  
> Disclaimer: _The X-Files_ and all related characters are the property of Chris Carter, 1013 Productions, and Fox Studios. No profit is made from this and no infringement is intended.

He forgot other people had families and friends. He had the Lone Gunmen, but Scully, all unforeseen, had a godson, and presumably, a best friend. He had read her file. He knew she had siblings, two living parents, probably cousins and aunts and uncles and assorted relations, but she didn't talk about them. They had talked about his family. Scully's remained a mystery. She was a jewel taken out of her setting. He caught glints of her, one facet at a time. He couldn't see her laughing with her girlfriends over a glass of wine or smoothing a baby's hair with her palm. She was just Scully, all business, but then, he thought, he only saw her at work.

There might be more to life, but not to his life anymore. He felt real when he was working. His hours off were just passing time until he could take up the hunt again. He had cast himself out for the sake of the work. He had made himself the prodigal, the scapegoat, and it was worth it, but now he had these glimpses through Scully's eyes of the life he'd left behind.

He'd thought he was beyond that.

\+ + + + 

He loved that there were mysteries so close to home. New Jersey was not his idea of an ancestral forest, but there was still something primal about spending the night outdoors, even nestled between trashbags. The pang of fear that shocked him from belly to knees was something ancient. 

Scully scoffed at him, but she still bought him breakfast and found him a specialist. That was a point in the favor of civilization.

\+ + + + 

The Jersey Devil sliced him open and his first response was wonder. What marvels the world contained. What mysteries remained to be discovered. What diseases he might catch from a wild woman, Scully countered, putting pressure on his wound. 

Mulder didn't care. There was magic in her, this mythical woman.

And then she was dead, this Jersey Devil, and the mystery with her, but not the wonder.

\+ + + + 

He'd had a glimpse into Scully's life, a window into how a person might live, and then she closed the curtains again, and he wasn't sure which side she was on.


End file.
